Aiming to make a mark in the burgeoning augmented reality market, visual browser Blippar, on Wednesday, entered the Indian market. It aims to partner about 50 big brands in the country to help them offer marketing campaigns with rich and engaging content.
Blippar, using augmented reality technology, allows smartphone users to point their phones’ cameras at certain objects — be it a print advertisement or even a can of aerated drink — to start videos or offer product info.
“Blippar sees enormous potential in India and the rest of Asia, and is eager to reinforce its presence in the region. As the location of our first Asian office and as a country with a huge, young population boasting a keen interest in new technologies, the Indian market is crucial to Blippar,” Blippar Founder and CEO Ambraish Mitra said. It counts global brands such as L’Oreal, Universal Pictures and Jaguar among its clients. It plans to add about 3-5 million users for its app in India. The company, which has about 25 people in India, is also looking at introducing a solution that will work on mobile connections with low Internet speed. “In markets like India, connectivity and speed is an issue. Many people are still using 2G. A new product will be out in the next 4-6 weeks to take care of that issue,” he said.
Besides, Blippar was in discussion with telecom operators and handset makers here to reach a larger base of smartphone users, he added.
Founded in the U.K. in 2011, Blippar today has over 50 million unique users (post acquiring another AR player, Layar, in June) and over 50 million global interactions.
It has presence in the U.S., the U.K., Spain, Turkey, Japan, the Netherlands and Benelux countries and has conducted projects across other countries as well.
